Linux Passes 4% Desktop Market Share (linuxiac.com) 199
"Linux gained from 3% to 4% in 8 months," writes longtime Slashdot reader bobdevine. Linuxiac reports: According to the latest data from StatCounter, a leading web traffic analysis tool, Linux's market share has reached 4.03%. At first glance, the number might seem modest, but it represents a significant leap. Let's break it down. It took Linux 30 years to secure a 3% share of desktop operating systems, a milestone reached last June. Impressively, the open-source operating system has surged by an additional 1% in the last eight months.
Linux passes 6% market share (Score:5, Insightful)
Chrome OS is reported separately, but it's still a Linux-based desktop operating system (built on Gentoo, as I understand it). Reporting these results as only 4% minimizes the success of operating systems using the Linux kernel.
Re:Linux passes 6% market share (Score:4, Interesting)
...if you think Chrome OS doesn't count, then you're probably not talking about "Linux," you're talking about "GNU."
Re: (Score:3)
No, he just read the article and realized that ChromeOS is listed separately.
Personally I'm very skeptical of these numbers, geeks don't represent 4% of the internet population let alone the people willing to run Linux on the desktop. I wonder whether these numbers are just AI bots scraping the web ;)
Re: (Score:3)
geeks don't represent 4% of the internet population
But they probably easily represent 4% of desktop web browsing traffic. I realize that "desktop" probably includes laptops too but phones and tablets are a primary browsing device for a lot of people. Especially older people who are aging out of easily using a desktop computer.
Re: (Score:3)
It's all SteamOS (Score:3)
The increase is mostly steam decks. Users are led to install Chrome or Firefox from flathub, depending on context.
Re: (Score:2)
There are 1.4 billion Windows PCs worldwide, and only a few million steam decks.
Re: (Score:3)
A lot of people who begrudgingly bought a general purpose computer for web browsing because there was no other option have moved on to tablets, phones, set top boxes or other purpose built devices. I know quite a few such people.
The number of people using a general purpose computer for browsing at home is lower than it was before, and this reduction comes in the casual user segment rather than the more serious users.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There are a lot of not-quite general use desktops out there in the corporate world. Big retail is putting a lot customer service people in from gnu/linux terminals. Same thing for in store employees, who don't use a workstation in their work but do need to do somethings like read corporate e-mail, complete HR tasks, do computer based training, etc.
These people generally just need to run a handful of web apps so there is no compatibility concern or MS Office lockin.
I know a number of private schools have r
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Stallman is a narcissist with poor social skills who was jealous that the part that he worked on wasn't getting as much recognition.
This is a rare example of ad-homenim. You're saying he's a dickhead and therefore he's wrong. He may very well be a dickhead, but that doesn't mean he is wrong.
The average desktop user doesn't touch half the GNU stuff on a day to day basis.
The reality is that GNU/Linux/Xorg/Chromium/KDE just doesn't roll off the tongue, so we just call the general ecosystem "Linux".
He might be
Re: (Score:3)
Why focus on GNU
Because POSIX and related specification offer an objective, formal definition of an OS, and GNU implements those interfaces. It is, therefore, objectively an OS.
Any other definition is subjective.
The reality is that GNU/Linux/Xorg/Chromium/KDE just doesn't roll off the tongue
But Xorg, Chromium, and KDE do not make up the OS. No part of POSIX (or related specs) require any of those things. Therefore they are not part of the OS, and they have no bearing on the name of the OS.
I honestly don't know why this is complicated for some people.
Re:Linux passes 6% market share (Score:5, Informative)
SteamOS too. Microsoft is trying to phone-ify the PC (esp monthly payments and an app store and more data looting), Steam decided Linux is the future of gaming. This kills off one of the major selling points of Widows, as the gaming OS. Even for those not using SteamOS, this is a win for gaming on Linux.
Re: (Score:2)
Steam promoting Linux compatibility in games must have resulted in at least a few increases in the various distros.
Re: Linux passes 6% market share (Score:2)
Let's not forget Lutris, you can install a lot of stuff through that. It connects to the Ubisoft and Epic stores, as well as GOG and Steam. It makes it easier to fiddle with DXVK options and such than does steam, even with steamtinkerlaunch. Oddly I have found some of their installers don't work as well as the ones for playonlinux, but for newer titles it is superior.
Re:Linux passes 6% market share (Score:4, Interesting)
Chrome OS is reported separately, but it's still a Linux-based desktop operating system (built on Gentoo, as I understand it). Reporting these results as only 4% minimizes the success of operating systems using the Linux kernel.
I dunno, I prefer it this way. ChromeOS is like Android, it's there because the manufacturer put it there. Proper desktop Linux is usually only there because the user (or their "techie friend) put it theere deliberately. Counting the latter tells us more about how cranky people are about the enshittification of Windows. Cranky enough to put in the effort to install and learn another OS.
Meaningless anecdote: I used Windows since 95. Moved to Linux Mint because one project required it. Dual-booted for a year or two, then realised that the Windows partition was just a waste of space. The handful of times per year that I NEED windows, it's far easier to use it in a VM. I'm using Linux on a range of systems, from Thinkpads to homebuilt desktops to 10+ year old netbooks. It Just Works, and you don't need an internet connection or microsoft account to get it up and running. Boot from USB, hit "install," select a time zone, done.
This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:5, Informative)
Windows 11 sucks so bad it's causing Linux on the Desktop to be a thing.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It also helps that Linux is finally close to ready for it. In terms of comfort levels for people with minimal computer literacy and long term exposure to Windows, Linux has always been behind enough to be intimidating... this is no longer necessarily true.
Re: This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux desktops have been a thing for many years. In the KDE 3 days I gave a load of very non technical users Linux. It did all the things they needed, they didn't know the difference. Some honestly thought they were using windows.
I don't know how windows has kept such a huge market share. It's not cheap, reliable, or secure. Linux is all three.
Re: This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:5, Informative)
>Linux desktops have been a thing for many years.
I'm aware; I am a Windows techie for cash and a Linux guy at home.
Being able to boot from install media and have it 'just work' like Windows without having to search the Internet to have someone tell you to 'just edit the config file with VI' then find there's still a chain of additional steps to take isn't 20+ years old now. And even then it was iffy on WiFi driver support or video card support.
No longer; I have my wife and my elderly parents using Mint on essentially random fairly new devices without issue, and they actually prefer it.
Re: This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Samsung's driver was an exe file
Something is far more fundamentally wrong on your machine if you need a driver from the SSD manufacturer to have the SSD recognised by any OS. That is reenforced by you point that after you installed the driver the rest of your system borked (especially fan control).
This is not a damning review of Windows, more of a WTF did you do to it question. I slotted a Samsung 990 Pro drive into my computer about 4 weeks ago in my second NVMe slot, and poof, magically appeared in the management console, as *all* SSDs
Re: This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:2)
"Being able to boot from install media and have it 'just work' like Windows"
That's a myth, I mean the idea that Windows just works. I've had to do all kinds of weird tweaks to every Windows system I've ever owned to make them work right. Registry tweaks, hotfixes, add runtimes, etc etc. With Linux the difference is what in particular is getting tweaked and how it's done, not that it requires additional work.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a myth for you.
When I was doing IT that was the norm. Especially if using vendor specific wipe tools.
Also I don't think OP is talking about the specific tweaks, UI changes, etc that geeks like to do. I think he's talking about getting the thing to boot and work out of the box. And towards that end I agree. With Linux desktops even 10 years ago one often had to do a bunch of extra work to get touchpads, wifi, etc working. Hell even today if you run Fedora and have an Nvidia graphics card, you'll ha
Re: (Score:2)
I've used Linux desktops for almost 30 years now, and it meets my needs almost perfectly, and improved greatly for the majority of that time (though I view systemd as a big step backwards, and still haven't transitioned to Wayland yet).
However, I still can't recommend desktop Linux distros for most people unless they're willing to get a little technical, buy hardware that is known to work well with Linux, and realize that most Windows-only software will require either dual-booting or a VM.
Re: (Score:2)
Mint is easy and I recommend it for ease. You can try it on your machine from a stick. No ob.
Grandma doesn't need Autodesk and Excel and Adobe, but she might need other specialty software [pcstitch.com]
I've found this to be a problem, limited interest groups have Windows only software. Not just flaming nerd cults.
Re: (Score:2)
Linux may work for some very limited users, but most will quickly run into problems.
For example, Netflix on Linux is limited to 480p. Many users will probably just assume that their computer is broken or crap, because it doesn't display any warning messages, it just looks really bad.
Then they will try to play a game and find that compatibility is hit and miss. Steam has made it a lot better, but it's still far from good.
You will be on the hook for all tech support because googling problems no longer works,
Re: This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:4, Insightful)
People don't care whose fault it is, they just want their computer to work. It's why they have given up trying to sell Linux machines in most shops. They come back.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know how windows has kept such a huge market share. It's not cheap, reliable, or secure. Linux is all three.
That statement needs qualifying:
Cheap - Most users do not see the cost of a windows license. It's just built into the computer they purchase. As such they will assume it is free. There's no incentive to switch or pick something else.
Reliable - That certainly was the case two decades ago. But what is unreliable these days? Bluescreens are virtually a think of the past baring hardware fault. The main reliability issues people have is with individual apps, and in that regard Linux is no better than windows and
Re: (Score:2)
I'd argue that while both Windows and desktop Linux have improved over the years, Linux still has the slight edge in terms of reliability (in spite of systemd). It wins easily on the security front (again in spite of systemd) for multiple reasons, including that it does not attempt to phone home and sell your data, that most of the core of desktop Linux is open source, and that fragmentation has caused it to become a very difficult target to attack, though you're of course correct that dumb users can poke
Marketing (Score:3)
I don't know how windows has kept such a huge market share. It's not cheap, reliable, or secure. Linux is all three.
Marketing. You can accomplish a lot of marketing with billions of dollars of revenue. In that sense, Linux can't compete, ...until the cool kids latch on and tell Instagram and TikTok how cool Linux is. ...Just like Fleetwood Mac became [businessinsider.com] a thing all over again [billboard.com] because of this one, single video [youtube.com]. Linux has zero budget for marketing, only word of mouth. And who listens to us?
Re: (Score:2)
It also helps that Linux is finally close to ready for it. In terms of comfort levels for people with minimal computer literacy and long term exposure to Windows, Linux has always been behind enough to be intimidating... this is no longer necessarily true.
Most mainstream UIs can be operated by a young child by design. The average user barely steps out of a browser window on the desktop these days. Have them describe what an operating system is to you. It’ll become crystal clear as to how utterly dominant minimal computer literacy really is out there.
Linux made a bootable LiveCD long ago. It really doesn’t get much easier than that to try out an OS. Unfortunately, now Linux has to climb over the massive wall known as Default Settings in order
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'll try to be respectful. :)
While I agree that most "regular users" aren't a great fit for desktop Linux, your information is quite out of date. Ubuntu 10.4 is well over a decade old, and modern Ubuntu will install without difficulty on any supported modern hardware, as will Debian, Mint, and any other distribution designed for desktop use.
Also, arguably, "the year of desktop Linux" arrived as soon as Android and Chromebooks came out. They're not Linux as you know it, necessarily, but they are Linux unde
Re: This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:2)
I don't think Linux is "behind". It's just different. Over the past couple of decades I have switched back and forth a few times, and had dual-boot for quite a while as well.
Currently, I'm on Linux, and likely to stay there. My wife has Windows, and the pestering, unwanted installations and settings changes are just...too much. OTOH, under Linux, yesterday my second screen just...stopped working. From one moment to the next. I got it working again, basically by trial and error and voodoo, but that's an hou
Re:This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:4, Informative)
Not true. Windows did not change. OSX dropped by 6%.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:4)
Lifelong Windows user here, getting tempted morr by Linux every time Microsoft enshittifies their OS further. The most recent examples were adding ads to my login screen and "accidental" default browser hijacking.
Then take the plunge! There's nothing stopping you - it's not an either / or situation. You can set up your Windows box to dual-boot Linux; alternatively, you can use an old computer. It might be obsolete when faced with Microsoft's bloat, but it will probably be just fine with Linux.
You may find you can move mostly to Linux, or even exclusively as I did so many years ago. But even if you split your time between Windows and Linux, you'll be better off. You'll only spend part of your computing time on a collection of spyware, adware, rentware, bloatware, and shovelware masquerading as an OS. The rest of the time, you'll be using an actual OS. And, guess what - with Linux YOU decide if and when your system updates, and you can even decide which things to update and which to hold.
Doing the experiment costs you nothing but a little bit of time, and you'll probably at least find the process entertaining. And that minor investment could pay off hugely - this coming from a Linux user who got sick of Windows circa 15 years ago and hasn't looked back. What have you got to lose?
Re: (Score:2)
My main work/everything-else-apart-from-games machine at home is an Asus laptop from 2008. I installed my first ever SSD on it last December and the thing runs Slackware 15 like a newly bought machine.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Lifelong Windows user here, getting tempted morr by Linux every time Microsoft enshittifies their OS further.
And yet you're still here. Look I'm sorry but your "threat" is empty. You have been abused for 20 years without making the shift. You're Stockholme syndromed and everyone can see it. You spend every day on a forum where the death of Windows in lieu of Linux is discussed (incidentally the same forum which said Linux is dead and the world will move to BSD to avoid systemd, so don't take stock investment tips from Slashdot) and despite surrounding yourself with a virtually endless stream of Windows negativity
Re: (Score:2)
I didn't move to a *BSD on account of systemd, but I did stick with a distro (based on Gentoo) on which it was not required, and that was part of the reason why. If not Gentoo, then Devuan would have been my second choice.
(Wayland also is not required; I would like to switch when I think it's ready, but as yet I don't, chiefly because XFCE has not yet been fully ported over.)
Re: (Score:2)
It's not just Windows 11. This started much earlier. We have W10 laptop that started life as W8. It was awful, but we needed Windows because Canon didn't have any scanner drivers for Linux and the ones that existed were awful. We use the laptop sometimes every day for scanning documents and photos, but sometimes it may be a couple of weeks between uses. The laptop insists on rebooting and updating often. Now when we login to it, it may take HOURS to get past all the update nonsense to the scanner sof
Re: This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:2)
How is Microsoft "breaking win32 compatibility"? I have many many win32 apps and games that run just fine. And secdrv.sys isn't even a Microsoft thing, the fact that an old insecure 3rd party driver doesn't work anymore is not the fault of Microsoft (although the decision to explicitly block it rather than let it run and fail is on them)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:4, Interesting)
Windows 11 is the straw breaking the back. Windows has sucked hard since version 8.1. The crazy thing is it KEEPS GETTING WORSE. Vista sucked so MS fixed it with 7. Most would agree 95 was fixed by Win98SE. WinMe, well thank goodness XP came along. However, MS has completely ignored users since 8.1 and instead shoveled crap upon crap down their throats. People are finally getting sick and tired of it.
LTSC is still unknown to most. (Score:2)
Not that I’m shilling for Microsoft here, but it pisses me off they don’t market the LTSC variants more to professionals. No garbage marketing, no extra shitware in the menus. Generally reminds me of Win7 days. And they support it with updates for ten years.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, that takes care of the shitware and most of the telemetry but does nothing to improve the horrible interface.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Nice rant, but Windows isn't down in the chart.
Re: (Score:2)
I use nothing but Linux at home, but at the office, I have one of the last remaining Windows 10 systems here. Everyone who's been "upgraded" to Windows 11 hates it.
We have a piece of software designed for tablets, based on WPF (the ONE major non-cross-platform thing in modern .NET), that ran perfectly before. The Windows 11 "upgrade" causes the on-screen keyboard behavior to be entirely non-deterministic, depending in part on what tablet model, whether or not an external display is connected, whether or n
Re: (Score:2)
Re:This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:4)
Windows 11 sucks so bad it's causing Linux on the Desktop to be a thing.
It's the Year of Anything-But-Windows on the Desktop!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: This is the fault of Windows 11 (Score:2)
I wouldn't really use the word "causing". It's got a negative presence around. I'd like to see this as an opportunity and rather say "encouraging". Helping people realise there are alternatives to Windows. Much better ones.
Influx of cheapo Win11 incapable machines? (Score:3)
That may be perhaps one of the causes....
Not in the USoA and other developed countries, mind you, but in less developed markets.
As those machines become more and more inadequate for the workloads desired on them (even under lightweight linux), or fail outright due to old age, the number will wane... .... just in time for the migration from Win11 to Win12, with the requirement for DP4a, AVX10.x/256, and DX12 Feat LvL 12.x , WDDM 2.4 and DirectML Support (+ a MANDATORY boot SSD) giving Linux a new batch of machines powerfull enough but not able to move to Win12
Re:Influx of cheapo Win11 incapable machines? (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows 11 marketshare hasn't changed. If you go by Statcounter it seems people are throwing away their Macbooks.
That said I would take this site with a fucking metric ton of salt. A site that month on month shows variance of an OS installed on half a billion PCs drop from over 70% to 60% and then up to 70%, the same site showing a 4% change in OSX from November to December. This is postulating a world where 10s of millions of people every month switch back and forth between OSes.
This reeks of a tiny non-representative dataset.
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder if Macbooks are just dying. Used to be people would keep using them for a long time, but between butterfly keyboards and other durability problems, maybe they just don't last anymore.
I have no data, but anecdotally some repair shops on YouTube (so massive grain of salt) are saying that quality and repairability have gone down.
Re: (Score:2)
Louis Rossman has a ton of videos on Macs and their quality problems. Yeah, he does have a bit of an axe to grind but his company still fixes Macs quite happily... and he shows why they're not great computers in great detail.
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting point of view I hadn't considered, all those 10s (100s?) of millions of old but good PCs that cannot upgrade to Win11 and are currently on Win10 are going to have no place to go but Linux at the point support ends for Win10. Haha, Microsoft may have really shot themselves in the foot with this.
Re: (Score:2)
Truly insightful! And I have no mod points today :(
Interesting point of view I hadn't considered, all those 10s (100s?) of millions of old but good PCs that cannot upgrade to Win11 and are currently on Win10 are going to have no place to go but Linux at the point support ends for Win10. Haha, Microsoft may have really shot themselves in the foot with this.
Sadly, if history is any guidance, what will happen is that people will stay on Win10, even after end of support. Some orgs will go to LTSC or IoT, sompe people will pirate LTSC or IoT, and some people will install some form of 0patch.
If/when those people/orgs decide to buy new machines (which will come with Win11) only then that machine will be free to go to linux via a recycler/refurbisher that ships it to a less developed country (with or without upgrades, as a whole unit or in parts), where the country'
Big drop of OSX (Score:5, Informative)
According to the graphs, the gain came at the price of OSX, which dropped from 21% to 15%.
The Windows looks stable.
I wonder why this big drop in OSX?
Personally, on my Macbook Pro M2, I run OSX and always active Parallels VM with Windows 11 ARM64 and Ubuntu 22.04 aarch64 desktop.
Re:Big drop of OSX (Score:5, Informative)
Big drop of OSX due to newer versions (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
How can it be tracked when OSX (OS ten) hasn't been a thing for several versions since it's MacOS 14.3.x not OSX 14.3.x ;)
Re: (Score:2)
The breakdown of OSX versions shows only OSX 10.x versions. Newer versions of OSX 11-14 (Big Sur to Sonoma) are not identifiable by StatCountet (see notes on report breaking down OSX version market share). The drop in OSX tracks with the increase in ‘unknown’ OS numbers and the sum of OSX plus unknown follows the trend of OSX from prior reports.
Nope, all newer versions of OSX/MacOS 11 and above are bundled under 10.15
Re: (Score:2)
The Windows looks stable.
It doesn't. Look to the start of the graph which shows Windows dropping by nearly 10% and then regaining 2 months later. Windows isn't broken down by version which means it should be representative of over 1 billion installations. This means that over 100million users decided one month to the next to change their OS.
The only conclusion you can draw from this dataset is to not draw any conclusion from this dataset since it's clearly not representative of actual users.
OSX is the same. One can accept that OSX
Put Linux In BIOS. (Score:3)
Then I can just turn on PC and there it is. Maybe one day the Linux architecture can be as invisible as the BIOS. Then we can just get to work/play and not care anymore about OS wars.
Re: (Score:2)
Then we can just get to work/play and not care anymore about OS wars.
(2024) ”Woah, check out what I found! Dual-boot..”
Load what you want. Play all you want. OS Wars are for marketing dweebs.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Until yet another Windows patch fries the bootloader again, boom, no Linux, gone.
*looks over at decades old VM snapshot capability*
Yet another work/fun alternative that “patched” the problem of Windows patching. Just a thought.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Then we can just get to work/play and not care anymore about OS wars.
Market shares also affect you even if you are not planning to change your OS. We should all cheer for more competition in the OS market. If alternative OSes happened to have a larger userbase, it would affect your consumer experience positively by possibly lowering the prices in software distribution market, or negatively if you are the IT person in charge of supporting a BYOD company.
This is it! (Score:2)
I can feel it... it's the year of Linux on the desktop!
This could be the year (Score:3)
Linux gets predicted to make it to the desktop. Again.
Not in terms of system boots (Score:4, Funny)
Windows still leads by far in systems that have been booted up this year, thanks to it having to be rebooted every week.
Re: (Score:3)
You dont have to reboot a linux system, you are not forced to, but you probably should when a kernel update requires it, high uptimes used to impress me - now they terrify me, anything more than 90-120 days makes me nervous.
Re:Not in terms of system boots (Score:4, Interesting)
Rebooting or turning off a linux machine is also less painful in most cases.
Windows can punish you with a surprise forced update that takes several minutes, which is great for when you're turning your machine off due an horrifying thunderstorm or something of sorts.
Re: (Score:2)
Windows can punish you with a surprise forced update that takes several minutes, which is great for when you're turning your machine off due an horrifying thunderstorm or something of sorts.
No it can't. There's a little orange indicator on the shutdown button when an update will be installed, and clicking on it gives you the option to *not* apply updates during either shutdown or reboot. And when you apply updates during shutdown it will reboot the machine and then shutdown again so you won't even be surprised by your next startup. This has been the how it has worked for 3 years now.
Why do people comment about Windows in ways which are so obviously visibly incorrect?
Version upgrades (Score:2)
More Linux users or less desktop OS users? (Score:5, Interesting)
Desktop operating systems are getting less popular with casual users, many of whom have switched to smartphones and tablets to fulfil their requirements. This doesn't apply to power users, many of whom use Linux. So Linux ends up with a bigger share of a dwindling market.
Statistical error (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
No no no, this is EXACT. Just as exact as millions upon millions of Mac users abandoning OSX, or 100 million Windows users blipping out of existence in April and May and reappearing in June.
This dataset is borked.
Baby Numbers (Score:2)
Call me when it hits double digits. Otherwise, it's not even noteworthy.
Re:Baby Numbers (Score:4, Interesting)
If someone had 4% of the US grocery market, that would be about Target's share, or about twice as much as Safeway.
The problem is that high-tech markets tend to run strongly towards monopolies or duopolies and it's incredibly hard to be competitive. The fact that Linux managed to claw its way to 4% (or 6% if you count Chromebooks) is IMO a fantastic achievement. And I think it'll keep making gains until it does eventually hit the threshold you want to be called about.
Steam Deck (Score:2)
Most likely the cause of that sudden increase.
The Steam Deck is usually counted as a Linux desktop, because, well, under the hood, it is a PC that runs Linux.
Re: (Score:2)
No and no. Steamdeck sales are tiny compared to the dataset of global OS users. Also I'd wager that out of the couple of million units sold, 99.9% of them will be used by people who don't even know how to start a browser and are unable to do anything on them which would result in them registering on Statcounter's dataset. One needs to not only buy and use something, but also do an activity that causes them to be registered, and I don't think Valve is giving Statcounter its user data.
Note that StatCounter is based on ad-servers (Score:2)
So their values are skewed towards people not using noscript or similar security extensions.
Finally! (Score:3)
The year of Linux on the desktop is here!
Year of the Linux Desktop (Score:2)
Only half a story (Score:2)
Whoever wrote TFA should be embarrassed.
How many PC gamers? (Score:2)
Just wondering what impact Valve (and others) have had on this steep increase?
More and more, I'm seeing Linux mentioned on PC gaming forums. Plenty of gamers have switched or are looking at doing so.
Windows 10 EOL is absolutely a factor in this, but so is the fact that as much as 95% (if not more) of games available on the Steam Platform alone, run perfectly. Slightly worse / The Same / Better than under windows.
Valve are also well into the process of making PC gaming mobile, using Linux - the Steam Deck is
Re: (Score:2)
Well, if they also switched to web browsing that way then sure it would count. Statcounter shows web traffic, not games use. Someone stated it only counts served ads specifically. So computers with tracking/ad blockers installed won't be counted either.
What's possibly more interesting is that over the past ten years Windoze has steadily lost a solid 20% share. The slope is quite linear. Most of it has gone to the Mac.
Re: (Score:2)
As a long-time Linux users (Score:2)
Let me be the first to welcome our new shite OS refugees to the land of user-centric, privacy-respecting, not-insane software.
We've been waiting for you for 30 years, you finally made it!
Year of Linux on the desktop (Score:2)
Perhaps there will still be a "Year of Linux on the desktop", once the desktop metaphor stops having any relevance. Apple probably goes for AR stuff in the long run. No idea whether Microsoft will be relevant as an OS vendor in the long run.
garbage data (Score:2)
Considering the wild monthly fluctuation of Windows market share, it isn't that Linux gained 1% in 8 months it's that the data is garbage.
Also worth mentioning (Score:2)
End of support for Windows 10 is October 14, 2025. Lots of PCs can't be upgraded to Windows 11, but would make great Linux Desktops.
Re:Is Windows under Linux usable? (Score:4)
Have you tried cross-platform alternative office suites to see if they're compatible/usable enough for you? The most well known is probably LibreOffice, but there's others like OnlyOffice too. Try them out on Windows first and if you find one that works for you, then run the Linux version when you move over to a Linux distro.
Re: (Score:2)
KVM/QEMU can give you an always-on Windows desktop in Linux. You can auto-start it at boot if you wish and forget about it till you need it. Modern laptop/desktop CPUs have great facilities for running VMs efficiently. With the QXL paravirtual graphics driver you'll have excellent performance for desktop applications like Office applications and even video. If you need (near) bare metal performance (for gaming or such) you can even use PCI passthrough to a GPU, given certain hardware. You can run Samba